Switchable dual-wavelength mode-locked fiber laser source for in-PCF parametric frequency conversion applied to CARS microscopy

A self-started, switchable dual-wavelength allpolarization-maintaining mode-locked (ML) fiber laser for optical parametric generation (OPG) in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) applied to coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is reported in this paper. The complete laser setup is built...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Aporta Litago, Iñaki|||0000-0002-2896-6371, Quintela Incera, María Ángeles|||0000-0002-6776-0325, López Higuera, José Miguel|||0000-0002-8615-8487
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repositorio:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/18284
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10902/18284
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Optical fiber lasers
Mode locked lasers
Laser tuning
Fiber nonlinear optics
Fiber Bragg gratings
Descripción
Sumario:A self-started, switchable dual-wavelength allpolarization-maintaining mode-locked (ML) fiber laser for optical parametric generation (OPG) in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) applied to coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is reported in this paper. The complete laser setup is built in an all-fiber structure composed of commercial elements. It is based on a linear cavity with an active medium-namely, Ytterbium-doped fiber (YDF), a pair of fiber Bragg gratings as switchable partial mirrors between 1031.5 and 1049.7 nm, and a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror functioning also as the mode-locking device. The seed laser is amplified to 650 mW average power by two YDF amplifiers. The source delivers a pulse-train output of 30.9 ps at 1031.5 ps and 31.6 ps at 1049.7, a 3.1-MHz repetition rate, and over 200 nJ pulse energy and 6 kW of peak power at fundamental ML operation. The properties of this switchable dual-wavelength source ensures the correct OPG by degenerated four-wave mixing in PCF fulfilling the phase matching condition which corresponds to CARS resonance of 2850 cm -1 (CH3-O molecular bonds) at 1031.5 nm and 1475 cm -1 (CH2 δ molecular bonds) at 1049.7 nm.